MARCH 19TH

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK

Drink does not drown Care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.

— Benjamin Franklin,1749

AMERICANREVOLUTION.ORG

CHAPTER III

THE EXPEDITION SETS FORTH

The army gathered under Washington's command
at the siege of Boston numbered about eighteen thousand men,
and was principally composed of New England volunteers. From
this army it was determined to detach something more than a thousand
troops for the Quebec expedition - not a large force, yet outnumbering
all the British regulars then in Canadian garrisons. General
Washington was the better able to spare this detachment, because
it was already evident that the British troops shut up in Boston
had accepted the situation, and had not the least intention of
making any vigorous attempt to raise the siege without reinforcements
from England. Under these circumstances the American commander
felt that the fewer men kept in the enforced inactivity of an
investment the better, both for the morale of the army and the
cause for which they were fighting. Had it not appeared that
the difficulties of equipping, transporting and supplying a larger
force would multiply in a greater ratio than its increased effectiveness,
more soldiers could easily have been added to Arnold's command
without impairing the efficiency of the main army.

September 6, 1775, orders were given to draft
the men for Quebec from their regiments, while a company of carpenters
was sent forward to Colburn's shipyard, at Agry's Point, near
Pittston, about two miles below Gardiner, on the eastern bank
of the Kennebec, where the two hundred bateaux which the expedition
would require were to be built.

Two days later, the detachment was ordered
to rendezvous at Cambridge, where it was encamped on fhe Common
until the 13th, collecting provisions and filling up each company
of musketeers to eighty-four effective men, rank and file. The
whole force, all volunteers, was composed of three companies
of riflemen and two battalions of musketeers, and numbered about
eleven hundred men. Camp attendants, officers' servants, guides,
and a few men enlisted on the Kennebec must have later swelled
this number to nearly twelve hundred.

The rivalry among the many rifle companies
in camp at Cambridge, all of which were eager to volunteer for
the expedition, was so great that, to avoid jealousy and ill-feeling,
the captains were allowed to draw lots. Chance decided in favor
of the companies of William Hendricks, Matthew Smith and Daniel
Morgan. Thbse riflemen were mountaineers and frontiersmen from
Pennsylvania and Virginia, the two companies first named from
the former state, and Morgan's from the Old Doininion. Inured
to every hardship, capable of every exertion, thoroughly expert
in woodcraft and trained in the sharp school of border Indian
warfare, they were, in every respect, valuable recruits for such
an enterprise as this. Morgan's
company had marched the six hundred miles from Winchester, Virginia,
to Cambridge, in three weeks, without losing a man from sickness
or desertion. The Pennsylvania companies made a record for endurance
scarcely less remarkable, marching more than twenty miles a day
for twenty-two days.

Brought up amid the alarms and massacres of
the French and Indian wars, taught from their youth to regard
the red man as their hereditary and inevitable enemy, they had
perforce adopted his method of warfare, and fought by stratagem
and ambuscade oftener than under the articles of war. On their
own frontiers, indeed, they had sometimes gone so far in the
imitation of their savage foe as to blacken and paint their bodies
and faces, and occasionally used their tomahawks to scalp as
well as kill. On the present occasion, however, there was no
such relapse into primitive barbarity. Fearing neither "man,
Indian, nor devil," and God only so much as to make them
fight the heathen the better, the red coat of a British regular
inspired them with more contempt than terror. Braddock's fatal
campaign had taught them that fine uniforms and rigid adherence
to army regulations were not enough to make soldiers invincible.

Their marksmanship was the wonder of the camp
at Cambridge. Loading and firing on the run, they would often
pierce a target only seven inches in diameter at a distance of
two hundred and fifty yards - an exploit which seems almost miraculous
when the weapons of that day are considered. As soldiers they
were ready to maintain the best of discipline. Later in the war,
when Morgan organized his famous regiment of riflemen, it became
the most dreaded body of men in the Continental service, and
was generously declared by Burgoyne, at whose defeat it assisted
conspicuously, the finest regiment in the world. But they abhorred
the inactivity of camp life and were only too eager to share
in the certain perils and possible glories of the Quebec undertaking.

The New England volunteers were divided into
two battalions, one commanded by Lieutenant-CoIoneI Roger Enos
of Vermont, an officer of American birth, who had, however, the
advantage of having seen service in the British army, and Major
Return Jonathan Meigs, a tradesman-soldier from Connecticut;
while the other was commanded by Lieutenant-CoIoneI Christopher
Greene, a son of one of the justices of the Rhode Island Supreme
Court, and Major Timothy Bigelow of Massachusetts. The companies
composing the first battalion were led by Captains Scott, Samuel
McCobb, Thomas Williams, William Goodrich, Oliver Handchett and
Henry Dearborn. Those of the second battalion were commanded
by Captains Samuel Ward of Rhode Island, Simeon Thayer, John
Topham, Jonas Hubbard, and Oliver Colburn. These men, although
of less conspicuous physical proportions and martial accomplishments
than the riflemen, were still sturdy, active and courageous,
hardly yet accustomed to the standard of discipline that must
obtain in every effective fighting force, but well fitted to
sustain the arduous campaign they had undertaken. Their officers
were in some cases from wealthy and aristocratic families, while
others were simply honest farmers or tradesmen, who had abandoned
their humdrum occupations to take up arms in a cause they felt
to be just, and had been chosen to command by neighbors who knew
and trusted them. Earnest patriots all, they gave concrete expression
to that democratic spirit which was henceforth to animate the
young republic they labored to establish.

The detachment, as a whole, was of the very
flower of the colonial youth, young men of a spirit not easily
to be restrained by their elders, whom parental warnings of the
fatigues and perils to be encountered only served to fire with
more ardent yearnings for a share in the glory of success. Two
hundred and fifty came from Rhode Island, one hundred from Connecticut,
four hundred from Massachusetts, including the District of Maine,
one hundred from New Hampshire, two hundred from Pennsylvania,
one hundred from Virginia, and a few volunteers from New Jersey.
Even at that time America was glad to accept the aid of the sons
of Erin, and there were in the little army nearly two hundred
"emigrants" - fully a sixth of the detachment - from
the old country, a large majority of whom were from Ireland.

It was wisely a body of young men. Arnold
himself was but thirty-four. Enos, the oldest of the officers,
and, as the event was to prove, the least reliable, was forty-five.
The other officers were all below forty. Morgan was thirty-eight,
a splendid man, standing over six feet in his moccasins and weighing
two hundred pounds. His aspect was commanding, his voice stentorian,
his strength and endurance invincible. He had first seen service
as a teamster in Braddock's army, and was a battle-scarred veteran
of more than one border "war." On the march he wore
leggings and a cloth, in the Indian style; his beard was allowed
to grow, and one member of the expedition refers to him as having
the appearance history gives to Belisarius. Smith, the hero -or
devil - of the massacres at Conestoga and Lancaster jail, of
which Parkman tells us in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac,"
was somewhat younger; Meigs a trifle older; Greene, Hendricks,
Bigelow and the others were younger still.

Most of them had seen service of some sort,
in spite of their youth. Captain Thayer had been a member of
the famous "Rogers' Rangers," and his hairbreadth escape
from the massacre of Fort William Henry was terrifying enough
to have excused his devoting the remainder of his life to his
peaceful occupation as a maker of periwigs. Captain Dearborn,
a young man of twenty-four, who had educated himself to be a
physician, but was destined to pursue a semi-military, semi-political
career, with no little distinction, had received his baptism
of fire at Bunker Hill. Christian Febiger, a young Danish emigrant
with a imilitary education, had won his spurs in the same battle,
and acted as adjutant of the expedition. Besides the regular
officers, there were a number of commissioned volunteers, all
youths, some almost striplings. Among them were - Aaron Burr,the
son of the president of Princeton College, and afterward famous
in American history; Matthias Ogden of New Jersey; Eleazer Oswald,
who served as Arnold's private secretary; Charles Porterfield
of Virginia; Rev. Samuel Spring of Newburyport, the chaplain,
and a few others. The commissariat, which promised to prove a
most difficult department to conduct, appears to have been organized
by Captain Farnsworth and an assistant, Jeremiah Wheelwright.

On September 13, all preparations being completed,
the second battalion left Cambridge on their march for Newburyport,
the port of embarkation for the mouth of the Kennebec. That day
they reached Malden and there passed the night. At five in the
afternoon of the same day the first battalion followed, and quartered
that night at the meeting-houses at Mystic and Medford. On the
following day both battalions continued their march - the second
camping at Beverly, while the first, passing through the towns
of Malden and Lynn, encamped at Salem and Danvers. The weather
was hot and sultry. At sunset on the 15th the second battalion
reached Newburyport, the first following them next morning. The
men were quartered, some in the Presbyterian meeting-house, some
in two of the ropewalks, some at Davenport's Inn, while the riflemen
spread their tents in a field near Rolfe's lane. The officers
were entertained by Mr. Nathaniel Tracy and Mr. Tristram Dalton.
The detachment received an ovation upon its arrival, and the
patriotic citizens of old Newbury were lavish in their hospitality.

Meanwhile Arnold remained at Cambridge, doubtless
to receive his final orders, until the morning of the 15th, an
unlucky Friday. It is highly probable, too, that Washington held
him back for the very latest despatches from Schuyler, who wrote
Washington on the last day of August that Montgomery was to leave
Crown Point that day. Stopping at Salem for dinner, and to arrange
for the forwarding of some two hundred pounds of ginger, and
two hundred and seventy blankets received from the Committee
of Safety, he arrived at Newburyport at ten o'clock the same
evening.

He brought with him not only General Washington's
instructions for the conduct of the expedition, but also a liberal
supply of printed hand-bills containing a manifesto addressed
to the people of Canada, which were to be distributed broadcast
as soon as the Chaudière settlements should be reached.
The detailed orders, outlining the cornmander's duty in specific
emergencies, and the somewhat inflated rhetoric of the manifesto,
hardly demand insertion here, but it is worth while to print
Washington's general letter of instruction to Colonel Arnold,
in order that we may understand the spirit in which the invasion
of Canada was undertaken, and appreciate the sincere hopes which
were then entertained by the patriot leaders, of widespread and
effective cooperation on the part of the Canadians themselves.
The letter is as follows:

CAMP AT CAMBRIDGE, 14th September, 1775.

To COLONEL BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Sir: - You are intrusted with a command of
the utmost consequence to the interests and liberties of America.
Upon your conduct and courage, and that of the officers and soldiers
detached on this expedition, not only the success of the present
enterprise, and your own honor, but the safety and welfare of
the whole continent may depend. I charge you, therefore, and
the officers and soldiers under your command, as you value your
own safety and honor, and the favor and esteem of your country,
that you consider yourselves as marching not through the country
of an enemy, but of our friends and brethren, for such the inhabitants
of Canada, and the Indian nations, have approved themselves in
this unhappy contest between Great Britain and America, and that
you check, by every motive of duty and fear of punishment, every
attempt to plunder or insult the inhabitants of Canada. Should
any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any
Canadian or Indian in his person or property, I do most earnestly
enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment,
as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to
death itself, it shall not be disproportioned to its guilt, at
such a time and in such a cause.

But, I hope and trust, that the brave men
who have voluntarily engaged in this expedition, will be governed
by far different views, and that order, discipline and regularity
of behavior, will be as conspicuous as their valor. I also give
it in charge to you to avoid all disrespect of the religion of
the country, and its ceremonies. Prudence, policy, and a true
Christian spirit, will lead us to look with compassion upon their
errors without insulting them. While we are contending for our
own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights
of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the
judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case, they
are answerable.

Upon the whole, sir, I beg you to inculcate
upon the officers and soldiers the necessity of preserving the
strictest order during the march through Canada; to represent
to them the shame, disgrace, and ruin to themselves and their
country, if they should by their conduct turn the hearts of our
brethren in Canada against us; and, on the other hand, the honors
and rewards, which await them, if by their prudence and good
behavior they conciliate the affections of the Canadians and
Indians to the great interest of America, and convert those favorable
dispositions they have shown into a lasting union and affection.
Thus wishing you, and the officers and soldiers under your command,
all honor, safety, and success, I remain, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Special instructions were also given to Arnold
concerning the son of Lord Chatham, who was known to be at this
time traveling in Canada. This young man was to be shown every
mark of deference and respect, should he by any chance fall into
the hands, of the expedition. "You cannot err," wrote
Washington, "in paying too much honor to the son of so illustrious
a character and so true a friend of America." The opportunity
to give effect to these instructions never presented itself,
but their spirit shows how deep and genuine was the grateful
affection which Chatham's sturdy defense of the principle of
liberty had aroused in the breast of the truest American patriots.